3 arms and a tail ...

I get that back in the good ole days it was harder to get around from one community to another, and the population wasn't as dense as it is now, people tended to marry their neighbors and, as it turns out, often their cousins.  As I've mentioned before I'm finding as I move through Capt Jesse's children, grandchildren, and further down the line that a few surnames tend to repeat themselves along the way.  Some are quite prevalent, like Hemeon, Hamilton, and Hurlburt.  Oh. My. God.  The Hurlburts alone are mind boggling.  There are so bloody MANY of them, and so many of them married other Hurlburts, plus they share many of the same names.  In one case I'm sorting through some lists showing an Isaac and Catherine Hurlburt and all of their kids, then there's a David and Caroline Hurlburt and their bazillion kids.  Then the names Catherine and Caroline are swapped, like maybe they were used as nicknames for each other, causing me to wonder if these couples weren't maybe actually the same people??  Maybe he was David Isaac or Isaac David?  I'm thinking now they're not, it seems that they were actually two separate families, though absolutely related.  I haven't gotten around to actually deciphering how they're related, though no doubt they're all first cousins.  

Capt Jesse's daughter Eleanor/Penelope married a Hurlburt.  His other daughters Sarah and Rebecca each had sons who married Hurlburts.  That's just the tippy tip of the iceberg, there are many, many other Hurlburts in the tree.  The Hemeons and Hamiltons are plentiful as well but not quite as confounding as the Hurlburts.  I've been fortunate enough to be able to get in touch with Brian Hurlburt, a distant cousin who has done much research into his family tree and is proving very helpful in sorting them all out.  I don't know where I'd be without him.  

So many cousins marrying cousins, including my own grandparents, I'm just constantly amazed that I don't have 3 arms and a tail.  Thank God for the occasional adventurous soul who, for work or whatever reason, left the village and went out of the family to find a spouse.  The gene pool will be forever grateful for that bit of stirring up the pot.